Does Tom Cruise's baby really exist?

One morning earlier this month, the pilot of a Gulfstream jet radioed a tiny airfield high in the Colorado mountains, asking for permission to land.

On board the private plane, which had taken off two hours earlier, were two senior members of the controversial Church of Scientology.

As it taxied to a halt at the end of the runway at Telluride Airport, the emissaries were met by a blacked-out sports utility vehicle and driven three miles to the secluded 250-acre estate of actor Tom Cruise.

Their mission was not, however, to minister to the Hollywood superstar. Instead, their appointment was with Cruise’s bride-to-be Katie Holmes and, more importantly, their baby daughter, Suri.

This secret meeting gave the clerics membership of a tiny club - those who have laid eyes on the child since her birth in April. Indeed, such is the clamour in Hollywood over the mystery of Suri’s non-appearance in public that one U.S. celebrity magazine’s website carries a clock displaying how long she has remained out of sight.

In recent days, there has even been wild speculation that the baby does not even exist, but is part of a huge publicity stunt.

And these crazy, and clearly inaccurate, conspiracy theories have only been given weight by reports that the couple’s closest friends - John Travolta, his actress wife Kelly Preston (like Cruise, high-profile supporters of the cult-like church) and actor Will Smith — have so far not seen Suri.

Cruise and Katie, nicknamed ‘Tomkat’ in the U.S., have certainly been keeping an unusually low profile. This week, holed up in his palatial mountain holiday home, the star has been sending minions out to collect cappuccinos and groceries.

Last weekend, in a display of wanton excess, Cruise dispatched his same £18 million jet to California to collect crates of diet cherry soda and organic food for 27-year-old Katie - rather than risk returning to his Beverly Hills compound, which is watched day and night by paparazzi with a million-dollar bounty on the first snaps of Suri.

But why the cloak-and-dagger operation to ensure their first-born child remains out of sight? And why have high-ranking members of the shady Scientology organisation been called in ahead of family friends?

The reason, the Mail has learnt, is that the couple have submitted to a Scientology ritual that decrees babies must be cocooned from the outside world in their first months.

Former Dawson’s Creek star Katie’s latest meeting with her Scientology instructors was to establish whether, in their opinion, the newborn is ready to be unveiled in public.

These developments are causing increasing disquiet for the devoutly Catholic parents of the doe-eyed Katie, who cut a solemn and lonely figure earlier this month in the grounds of the isolated retreat.

Indeed, the grave demeanour of the normally effervescent starlet may have much to do with relations between her worried parents and her multi-millionaire lover.

Friends say her divorce lawyer father, Martin Holmes, and his wife, Kathy, have a ‘brittle’ relationship with the notoriously controlling Cruise. They are said to fear they have been eased out of their daughter’s life since she became engaged to the 44-year-old Mission: Impossible star within weeks of their meeting 15 months ago.

To add to their unease, Cruise’s Scientology-inspired edict about Suri’s isolation meant that Mr and Mrs Holmes did not see the baby for a full two weeks after she was born. The situation has not been helped by Mr Holmes’ insistence on negotiating a £22 million ‘pre-nuptial’ agreement, guaranteeing his daughter and granddaughter a trust fund of £8 million even if the couple do not marry.

Her parents are also known to be worried about Katie’s indoctrination in Scientology - which teaches that humans are descended from aliens known as ‘Thetans’, who were banished to Earth 75 million years ago.

Sources close to the couple claim Suri has already had a Scientology naming ceremony designed to ‘welcome the baby to Earth’.

During the ceremony, a Scientology minister is said to have told the child: "Hello. Your name is Suri. Does that upset you? You are a Scientologist now. Welcome."

Indeed, Tom sent out a coded warning to his prospective in-laws just before her birth: "You can be Catholic and a Scientologist. You can be Jewish and a Scientologist. But we’re just Scientologists." Her parents have, it seems, every reason to feel concerned.

Since her meeting with Cruise, the Batman Begins actress has been undergoing intensive daily sessions with Scientology tutors to study the teachings of the Church’s founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

During labour, Katie was famously required by Scientology strictures to remain silent so the baby would not be traumatised by her screams.

Not only that, the Mail has learnt she has submitted to a controversial technique known as ‘auditing’ in which she is wired up to an machine similar to a lie-detector, called an E-meter, which, it is claimed, wipes out traces of ‘negative’ childhood experiences.

Cruise, who as a generous benefactor to the group has risen quickly through its ranks since his conversion in 1990, has recently become known as an Operating Thetan VII, one step below the top rung of the organisation.

Both Cruise’s previous wives, actresses Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman, were converts to the faith, and, since their engagement last June, Katie has been taking lessons at Cruise’s compound in Beverly Hills, where the couple live with Cruise’s two adopted children.

However, Katie is said by associates to be exhausted by having to juggle her studies with her duties as a new mother. But Cruise, according to some reports, wants her to get pregnant again before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Katie is on a strict diet and exercise regime devised by her fiancé to lose the weight she put on during pregnancy. This, too, has drawn anger from her father, who complained last month: "My daughter needs rest, relaxation and recuperation. It’s all down to Scientology and I simply can’t go along with what is happening."

Like Katie, Cruise’s adopted children with Miss Kidman, Isabella, 13, and eleven-year-old Connor, are home-schooled in Scientology. According to U.S. cult expert Rick Ross, who has investigated Cruise’s involvement with Scientology, both children undergo regular ‘auditing’.

"You have to understand that Tom Cruise is Scientology’s Top Gun," Ross told the Mail. "He is their Number One guy, and as one of their most devoted celebrities, he gives them a lot of money and promotes Scientology."

Ross also believes Scientology is the reason behind Cruise’s reluctance to present baby Suri to the public.

"Hubbard believed children should be surrounded by a calm environment," he said. "Scientologists believe if you experience something negative - a trauma or illness - and at the same time hear a noise, every time you hear that noise in the future you will recall that traumatic event."

All of which gives an insight into the bizarre world now inhabited by the impressionable Katie. Indeed, amid dark rumours of Cruise’s influence, TV station Fox News has claimed that the actress suspiciously went missing for 16 days before her announcement that she was dating the star - two weeks during which she fired her long-time manager and agent.

She is also said to have already taken part in an unofficial Scientology ‘marriage’ with Cruise.

Worryingly for the Holmes family, Rick Ross does not hold out much hope of them persuading Cruise to allow Suri to be brought up like Katie - and Cruise himself - as a Catholic.

"Tom Cruise is as staunch a Scientologist as they come," Ross told explained to the Mail. "He was born a Catholic, but he has converted his entire family."

Not surprisingly, there are rumours that his prospective in-laws may boycott Cruise’s planned official wedding to their daughter (originally to have been on July 4).

Meanwhile, at their mountain hideaway, an unhappy Katie remains locked away with her baby - hardly the life her loving and religious parents would have envisaged for her.